National Grid says aid still available to tropical storm victims

National Grid officials were in Middleburgh Monday morning to talk about a recovery that is continuing — and emergency assistance they continue to provide — after last year’s two tropical storms, Irene and Lee, struck eastern New York and the Southern Tier.

They chose the front lawn of Middleburgh High School for the event, an area that 10 months ago was under several feet of water.

Business owners, residents, and elected officials recalled the devastation following Irene.

“I probably had four and a half to five feet of water in the office,” said Dan Ross, a lawyer whose practice is on Main Street in Middleburgh. He estimated he lost about five years worth of files. He’s been in practice there for 30 years.

Damaged totaled about $125,000 to $150,000, he estimated, and his flood insurance didn’t cover all of it. A $25,000 grant from National Grid, however, “helped fill the gap.”

The utility will continue to offer three types of emergency grants through the end of the year, with a deadline for applications of Sept. 1 Visit www.shovelready.com for details on how to apply:

Emergency Commercial District Investment Program: These grants to municipalities help cover costs to replace gas and electric infrastructure, street lighting, repair facades on storm-damaged buildings and pay for demolition of condemned buildings.

Emergency Agriculture Fund helps farmers and agricultural businesses pay for repairs to gas and electric infrastructure and replacement of equipment such as pumps, and for lighting, ventilation and heating.

Emergency Main Street Revitalization Program provides grants for repairs to buildings in commercial areas.

The utility also has an emergency bridge loan program to provide no-cost construction financing to applicants in the agriculture and Main Street programs to complete renovation projects.

National Grid last fall produced a book: Schoharie County: Stronger than Irene, which contains storm photos taken by Jeff Van Deusen, a lifelong area resident who is overhead line supervisor in National Grid’s Cobleskill district. Sales of the book have so far raised more than $40,000, with all money going to the Schoharie County Community Action Program. Books are available at Kelley Agway and ACE Hardware in Coleskill, The Apple Barrel and The Carrot Barn in Schoharie, Middleburgh Hardware in Middleburgh and The Corner Store in Gallupville.

Of 22,000 utility customers in the Cobleskill district, Van Deusen said, 12,000 lost power during Irene. “Right now, everybody that can take service is restored,” he said.

But damaged and abandoned houses and businesses still dot the area. Schoharie County lost an estimated $16 million in property tax revenue from those properties.

In Middleburgh, “we lost about 5 percent of our property tax value for 2012-13,” said Matthew Avitabile, Middleburgh’s mayor. “Some difficult cuts” helped balance the budget without a tax hike, he added. “People needed the money in their pockets.”